In this article, we will be taking a look at the different ways food insecurity can manifest in a community. In order to focus our mission and propose more detailed solutions, our main focus of our company was food apartheids. As described previously, food apartheid describes the lack of grocery stores and healthy food options, which disproportionately affects communities of color. However, food insecurity goes beyond the lack of grocery stores in a certain community.
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Food swamps are geographic locations that have adequate access to healthy food, in both distance and affordability. However, these locations also have overabundance of less healthier foods, such as fast food restaurants and liquor stores (Haskell, 2021). Thus, communities in food swamps also experience a different style of food insecurity. Because of the overabundance in fast food restaurants and liquor stores, the less healthier options of food are more appealing in terms of affordability and accessibility. This leads to the individuals in food swamps to still gravitate towards less healthy food options, despite having adequate access to accessible and healthy food options.
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Another type of food insecurity is food mirages. A food mirage is a location where communities seemingly have easy access to healthy food options, such as grocery stores and supermarkets. However, the vast majority of the community cannot afford the healthy food options (Haskell, 2011). In the case of food mirages, the affordability of groceries is the key issue. Food mirages can be a more difficult issue to target, as increasing the number of grocery stores will not be an easy solution to the problem. Other financial solutions like minimum wage, employment rate, housing, and more need to be implemented in the troubleshooting of food mirages.
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Both food swamps and food mirages are a form of food insecurity that may not be as acknowledged as food apartheids in discussion for social change. This is because on the outside, it may seem like food swamps and food mirages have great access to fresh foods. Food apartheids, on the other hand, have a large focus in social discussion, as the main issue of food apartheids is the racist and oppressive systems that create inequity in access to food. However, a quick look deeper into the situation is all we need to notice that communities in food swamps and food mirages also need better access to healthy food options. Food swamps and food mirages require more detailed observation to recognize the disparities and address the core of the concern. This is where our company hopes to step in.
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By offering a comprehensive list of possible solutions, we hope to address the other types of food insecurities, at least partially. Taking a look beyond food apartheids has helped us to realize the extent of food insecurity and how addressing the issue will come at a much more nuanced level than a single consulting company like us. However, through our company, we hope to increase accessibility to healthy, safe, EDC-free food to a broader community of individuals.